Quality Comics
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There have been two comic book publishing companies by the name Quality Comics. The earlier was a U.S.-based company that operated from 1939 to 1956 and was an influential creative force in the Golden Age of comic books.
The U.S. company was started by Everett M. "Busy" Arnold, a printer who saw the rapidly rising popularity of the comic book medium and decided to join the industry. He began by buying out the title Feature Funnies and added new titles which became the basis of the company.
By the mid-1950s, interest in its stable of characters had declined considerably. After a foray into other genres such as war, humor and horror, the company ceased operations with comics cover-dated December 1956. Many of its properties were sold to National Periodical Publications (now DC Comics) which chose to keep only a few titles running, such as Blackhawk and GI Combat.
Over the decades, DC revived other Quality characters, including Plastic Man and a group of characters in the short-lived 1970s series Freedom Fighters. Other than Plastic Man, who has been a member of the Justice League and has his own ongoing series, most of the stable are occasional supporting characters in the DC Universe. For all intent and purposes, all characters from Quality Comics are now implicitly DC characters, although many have yet to actually be revived as such.
Some Quality Comics titles, including Blackhawk and Plastic Man, have been reprinted by DC, while lesser-known ones have been reprinted by AC Comics.
Characters/features
- Alias the Spider
- Black Condor
- Blackhawk
- Blue Tracer
- Bozo the Iron Man
- Captain Triumph
- The Clock
- Destiny
- Doll Man
- Espionage
- Firebrand
- The Human Bomb
- Invisible Hood
- Kid Eternity
- Lady Luck
- Magno
- Manhunter
- Midnight
- Miss America
- Mouthpiece
- Neon the Unknown
- Phantom Lady
- Plastic Man
- Quicksilver (later DC's Max Mercury)
- Raven I
- Ray
- Red Bee
- Red Torpedo
- Spider Widow
- Stormy Foster
- Torchy
- Uncle Sam
- Wonder Boy
List of titles published by Quality Comics
- All Humor Comics #1-17 (1946-1949)
- The Barker #1-15 (1946-1949)
- Blackhawk #9-157 (1944-1956; formerly Uncle Sam Quarterly #1-8;1 Blackhawk #158-273 subsequently published by DC Comics, 1957-1983)
- Bride's Romance #1-23 (1953-1956)
- Broadway Romances #1-3 (1950)
- Buccaneers #19-27 (1950-1951; formerly Kid Eternity #1-18)
- Buster Bear #1-10 (1953-1955)
- Campus Loves #1-5 (1949-1950)
- Candy #1-64 (1947-1956)
- Crack Comics #1-62 (1940-1949; ''Crack Western #63 onward)
- Crack Western #63-84 (1949-1953; formerly Crack Comics #1-62; Jonesy #85 onward)
- Diary Loves #2-31 (1949-1953; formerly Love Diary #1; G.I. Sweethearts #32 onward)
- Doll Man #1-47 (1941-1953)
- Exotic Romances #22-38 (1955-1956; formerly ''True War Romances #1-21)
- Exploits of Daniel Boone #1-6 (1955-?)
- Feature Comics #21-144 (1939-1950; formerly Feature Funnies #1-20, published by Harry "A" Chesler, 1937-1939)
- Flaming Love #1-6 (1949-1950)
- Forbidden Love #1-4 (1950)
- Gabby #11; issue numbering restarts,2 2-9 (1953-1954; formerly Ken Shannon)
- G.I. Combat #1-43 (1952-1956; #44-281 subsequently published by DC Comics, 1957-1987)
- G.I. Sweethearts #32-45 (1953-1955; formerly Diary Loves #2-31; #46 onward Girls in Love)
- Girls in Love #46-57 (1955-1956; formerly G.I. Sweethearts #32-45)
- Heart Throbs #1-46 (1949; #47-146 subsequently published by DC Comics, 1957-1972; retitled Love Stories, #147-152, 1972-1973)
- Hit Comics #1-65 (1940-1950)
- Hollywood Diary #1-5 (1949-1950)
- Hollywood Secrets #1-6 (1949-1950)
- Jonesy #85; issue numbering restarts, 2-8 (1953-1954; formerly Crack Western #1-84)
- Ken Shannon #1-10 (1951-1953; Gabby #11 onward)
- Kid Eternity #1-18 (1946-1949; Buccaneers #19 onward)
- Lady Luck #86-90 (1949-1950; formerly Smash Comics #1-85)
- Love Confessions #1-54 (1949-1956)
- Love Diary #1 (1949; Diary Loves #2 onward)
- Love Letters #1-51 (1949-1956)
- Love Scandals #1-5 (1950)
- Love Secrets #32-56 (1953-1956)
- Marmaduke Mouse #1-65 (1946-1956)
- Military Comics #1-43 (1941-1945; Modern Comics #44 onward)
- Modern Comics #44-102 (1945-1950; previously Military Comics #1-43)
- National Comics #1-75 (1940-1949)
- Plastic Man #1-64 (1943-1956)
- Police Comics #1-127 (1941-1953)
- Range Romances #1-5 (1949-1950)
- Robin Hood Tales #1-6 (1956; #7-14 subsequently published by DC Comics, 1957-1958)
- Secret Loves #1-6 (1949-1950)
- Smash Comics #1-85 (1939-1949; Lady Luck #86 onward)
- The Spirit #1-22 (1944-1950)
- T-Man #1-38 (1951-1956)
- Torchy 1-6 (1949-1950)
- True War Romances #1-21 (1952-1955; Exotic Romances #22 onward)
- Uncle Sam Quarterly #1-8 (1941-1943; Blackhawk #9 onward)
- Untamed Love #1-5 (1950)
- Web of Evil #1-21 (1952-1954)
- Wedding Bells #1-19 (1954-1956)
- Yanks in Battle #1-4 (1956)
Talents associated with the company
See also
Notes
- Note 1: As new periodical titles were subject to an expensive registration fee by the postal service to receive a second-class mail permit, Golden Age comic book publishers frequently continued the numbering of old titles on new ones, hence one comic book title "becoming" another with completely unrelated content.
- Note 2: Such renumbering occurred when the post office discovered a new title distributed under old numbering; the publisher was then forced to not only pay the registration fee, but also to list the correct issue number.
References
External Links
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